Tuesday, December 12
Exploring the Quantum Universe
After a multi-year review, the U.S. particle physics community has announced its vision for research spanning the next five to ten years. The various projects could, if funded, help researchers develop a much better understanding of the laws of nature.
The recommendations were released in a report called “Exploring the Quantum Universe: Pathways to Innovation and Discovery in Particle Physics.” It was written by the Particle Physics Projects Prioritization Panel (P5), a sub-panel of the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP), and will be submitted to funding agencies like the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the Natioce Foundation to guide their funding decisions over the next decade. READ MORE...
Monday, December 11
In the NEWS
Penn Reckoning
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned Saturday amid backlash over remarks made during a congressional hearing about on-campus antisemitism Tuesday. Reports of antisemitic harassment have increased at US universities since the start of the Israel-Hamas war two months ago, prompting scrutiny of those institutions' responses. A major donor withdrew a $100M partnership with Penn Thursday as a protest of Magill's comments.
Diamond Deal
Shohei Ohtani, one of baseball's biggest stars, will depart the Los Angeles Angels and head across town to the Los Angeles Dodgers after signing a contract reportedly worth $700M. In total value, the 10-year deal is believed to be the biggest contract signed by any athlete in global sports history.
Texas Abortion Battle
The Texas Supreme Court paused a lower court's ruling over the weekend allowing a Dallas-area woman to receive an abortion despite the state's new laws limiting access to the procedure. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the US since Roe v. Wade was overturned last June.
Retirement
This Princeton grad's startup raised $161M to help people plan for retirement.
If you're one of the whopping 110 million Americans over age 50—or a wise Millennial looking to get ahead—SmartAsset's no-cost tool makes it easy to find vetted financial advisors who serve your area. Research suggests that people who work with a financial advisor could end up with 15% more money to spend in retirement.¹
Science
- European Union reaches world's first comprehensive set of regulations for AI; plan creates a risk ranking system for different types of AI and allows consumers to file complaints against platforms (More)
- Paleontologists discover 75-million-year-old fossil of a Gorgosaurus, a species of tyrannosaur from what is now western North America, with its final two meals preserved in its stomach (More)
- Physicists demonstrate optical tweezers—focused laser beams that can hold and move tiny objects—which can position single molecules so precisely they can be used for quantum computing (More)
Purchasing Power of US Dollar in the USA
This means that over a 23 year period of time that inflation has reduced the value of the dollar.
The value of the dollar is even worse when used overseas and exchanged with the EURO dollar... it takes more dollars to buy a Euro than it did before...
This also hurts travel and tourism because it costs more for tourists to come to the USA than it did before which means we are losing revenues as a country.
To make matters worse, the dollar has less purchasing power in 2023 than it did in 1960... instead of getting stronger, the dollar has gotten weaker.
What contributes to this decline?
- Inflation
- National Debt
- GDP
- Perception of value
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) along with some other countries are pushing the rest of the world TO STOP USING THE US DOLLAR when negotiating trade deals with other countries.
This pressure also weakens the purchasing power of the US dollar.
WHY IS THE REST OF THE WORLD AGAINST THE USA???
Advice I Would Have Given My Young Self
I have heard lots of people make the comment that...
if I had it to over again, I would have lived my life differently...
and I am sure that they are sincere, but reflections like that are impractical and illogical because that chance would never happen, so why even consider it?
Personally, I would not have lived my life any differently if I had the chance because the way my life was and is currently being lived, is the way it was intended to be lived from the GETGO...
However,
with that said, I would have given my younger self the following advice...
DON'T BE GREEDY WITH YOUR CAREER THINKING THAT THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING BETTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD.
Why am I giving this advice?
Several times during my 45 year career, I changed my employers thinking that this move which provide me with greater and greater wealth.
The question that I did not ask myself was:
Why did I think I need this extra wealth?
The answer was simple... EGO
In 1977, I was in a great position with a Community College in North Carolina and had I stayed there for 20 years, I would have retired in 1997 at the age of 50. Obviously, I would not have retired, but I could have either stayed there or looked for another 20 year career from 50-70.
In 1990, I had a great position with a Community College in Tennessee and had I stayed there, I could have retired in 2010 after 20 years or 2015 (the year I actually retired) after 25 years.
LOOKING BACK....
I would not have changed anything... but had I been able to give myself advice, I MAY have lived my life a little differently because I had made different decisions.
IF... I was in a position to live my life again... I probably would have stayed in the Navy for 20 years and gotten my bachelor's and master's degrees while on active duty. 1969-1989... I then would have either applied for a teaching position while getting my PHD or simply gotten my PHD and then looked for a teaching position...
- PHD - 1989-1991
- Teaching - 1991-2011/2015
Retirement:
- Military - 20 years
- Teaching - 20 years
- Social Security - 40 quarters or 10 years
Making the Internet Better
From THE VERGE
Engineers and major companies are pushing a technology called L4S that they say could make the web feel dramatically faster. But how?
Building for tomorrow
A few months ago, I downgraded my internet, going from a 900Mbps plan to a 200Mbps one. Now, I find that websites can sometimes take a painfully long time to load, that HD YouTube videos have to stop and buffer when I jump around in them, and that video calls can be annoyingly choppy.
In other words, pretty much nothing has changed. I had those exact same problems even when I had near-gigabit download service, and I’m probably not alone. I’m sure many of you have also had the experience of cursing a slow-loading website and growing even more confused when a “speed test” says that your internet should be able to play dozens of 4K Netflix streams at once.
A few months ago, I downgraded my internet, going from a 900Mbps plan to a 200Mbps one. Now, I find that websites can sometimes take a painfully long time to load, that HD YouTube videos have to stop and buffer when I jump around in them, and that video calls can be annoyingly choppy.
In other words, pretty much nothing has changed. I had those exact same problems even when I had near-gigabit download service, and I’m probably not alone. I’m sure many of you have also had the experience of cursing a slow-loading website and growing even more confused when a “speed test” says that your internet should be able to play dozens of 4K Netflix streams at once.
So what gives? READ MORE...
Top Ten Tech Blogs
1. Wired
Founder: Louis Rossetto, Jane Metcalfe
Year Started: 1993
Domain Authority: 94 ⋅
2. TechCrunch
Founder: Michael Arrington, Keith Teare
Year Started: 2005
Domain Authority: 94
3. Recode
Founder: Kara Swisher
Year Started: 2014
Domain Authority: 93
4. Mashable
Founder: Pete Cashmoreg
Year Started: 2005
Domain Authority: 93
5. CNET
Founder: Halsey Minor, Shelby Bonnie
Year Started: 1994
Domain Authority: 93
6. The Verge
Founder: Joshua Topolsky, Jim Bankoff, Marty Moe
Year Started: 2011
Domain Authority: 92
7. Venturebeat
Founder: Matt Marshall
Year Started: 2006
Domain Authority: 92
8. Slashdot
Founder: Rob Malda, Jeff Bates
Year Started: 1997
Domain Authority: 90
9. Gizmodo
Founder: Pete Rojas
Year Started: 2001
Domain Authority: 90
10. Engadget
Founder: Pete Rojas
Year Started: 2004
Domain Authority: 90
Our Obese Society
Last year, I had managed to reduce my weight down to 220-224 and that weight stayed around for a while, so I thought that was the best that I could do.
Today, my weight is between 212-214 and while I like the way I feel nowadays, I would like to get down to 205.
At 205, I will still be overweight but not obese.
Somewhere between the ages of 50-60, I stopped being as active as I had been but continued to eat. I just did not care that much about the extra weight or how it made me free.
However, when I was diagnosed with cancer and started taking chemo, I was given steroids to prevent nausea and while that worked, it caused my weight to continue to increase.
A few years ago, I went from chemo to immunotherapy and as a result no longer needed to take steroids and it is then I consciously began focusing on my weight.
Exercise does not help one lose weight. It maintains the weight that was lost by NOT EATING AS MUCH and eating the right things.
I no longer eat red meat, fried foods, sugars, or drink alcohol. I eat fish, chicken, turkey, beans, and lots of vegetables. I like Salmon, Cod, and Tuna and have gotten used to eating Turkey Hot Dogs and Turkey Burgers.
We have a problem of obesity in the USA and while I was not obese until way after age 60, I see children and teenagers that are already obese and I wonder about their health and if we have the resources to take care of a bunch of people who are FAT AND SICK.
When I was working at ITT Technical Institute, we had two instructors there who were extremely obese. One was in his 40s and the other was in his 60s and they both died on the operating table due to complications from being obese. Both had gone in for a routine operation.
I hope this article causes you to think about your weight if you are obese. Now is the time to do something about it.
A Future Ready Organization
INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE
It’s really difficult to feel grounded in this world of constant and rapid change. Instead of anticipating the future, we react to change (often too late) or we give into uncertainty (and anxiety) and do nothing. There is another way forward: we can prepare and be ready.
Future readiness is a journey
Future readiness is the state of being fully prepared for the future. Future-ready organizations anticipate systemic shifts in their environment and understand their long-term impacts. They envision alternative futures and invest in strategic foresight to manifest their preferred futures. They make sense of change by cultivating a futures mindset up and down and across their organization.
Future readiness is the state of being fully prepared for the future. Future-ready organizations anticipate systemic shifts in their environment and understand their long-term impacts. They envision alternative futures and invest in strategic foresight to manifest their preferred futures. They make sense of change by cultivating a futures mindset up and down and across their organization.
Ultimately, future-ready organizations avoid being blindsided by change and are better able to transform valuable foresight into actionable insight by building and maintaining an anticipatory system (a network of resources including people, processes, methods, and tools dedicated to scanning the emerging future). READ MORE...
Sunday, December 10
Family Unity Gone
I look around my house and I see the Christmas tree lights and all the little figurines we have purchased over the years to sit around the house to create the Christmas mood... but today, there is no mood... no Christmas spirit.
Before our parents died, no matter where we lived, the three children would descend on Chapel Hill, NC to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with them. My sister lived next door, so she would just walk across. My brother would fly in and out on Christmas day with him family and I would drive over with mine.
While we seldom agreed on anything that we discussed around the dinner table, we were all still with our parents and we WERE A LARGE FAMILY...
It has been several years since their deaths. Our father died in 2001 and our mother about 12 years later. It has been over 5 years since our mother has died and the three children have yet to come together for CHRISTMAS... no one has even brought it up that this is something that we should do to honor the legacy of our parents.
Not coming together at Christmas HAS NOT RUINED Christmas for any of us... but we just don't have the family closeness anymore that we had when our parents were alive.
I am 76. My sister is 79. My brother is 68. My sister and I have remarried while our brother remains married with one child and one adopted. My sister had one child and I had one child. For all intents and purposes, we only communicate with each other at Christmas... the rest of the time, we live our lives as if we were an only child.
I have no idea what my brother or sister thinks about Christmas and our parents but I feel we have let them down with our failure to remain close or even remain in touch more often.
Theory Unites Gravity and Quantum Mechanics
Modern physics is founded upon two pillars: quantum theory on the one hand, which governs the smallest particles in the universe, and Einstein's theory of general relativity on the other, which explains gravity through the bending of spacetime. But these two theories are in contradiction with each other and a reconciliation has remained elusive for over a century.
The prevailing assumption has been that Einstein's theory of gravity must be modified, or "quantized," in order to fit within quantum theory. This is the approach of two leading candidates for a quantum theory of gravity, string theory and loop quantum gravity. READ MORE...
Saturday, December 9
Putting Up the Christmas Tree
It appears that putting up the Christmas tree is a family tradition in most every household in the USA. It certainly was for me growing up.
I cannot remember too much about my first marriage and that's probably why I am no longer married but my second marriage is a Christmas Tree putting up marriage.
Our tree goes up a week or two after Thanksgiving and it is an all-day spectacle.
First, we pull out our WalMart plastic containers that are full of all sorts of Christmas people and items, placing them all over the living room. Some sit on the floor, others sit on tables or on shelves, while some sit on the fireplace mantel with the Christmas stockings
By the time we are finished, our family room looks like a Christmas store, and we only used half the items.
Next, we go out to the front porch and set up a family of deer (with lights) in the front yard, with a multi-colored rotating spotlight in front of them. Around these deer are Christmas presents with bows and bells on top and lights on the inside. Lights are spread across the front porch as well,
Obviously, there are multiple extension cords that congregate as a central location where there are other devices for plugins, but the whole point of all these cords is so that we only end up with one or two connections to plug in and unplug each night.
We can never put the decorations up outside when the weather is nice, we always have to wait until the temperature drops and we are wearing heavy coats, toboggans and gloves, making it a lot easier to handle these small plugs.
Back inside, we assemble our three-part tree that we purchased from Big Lots or WalMart depending upon the price. The trees come with lights, but we also put on all sorts of hanging decorations so that after the tree has been properly dressed, you hardly can tell it's a tree other than it triangle shape.
A snowman with a red tophat always sits on the very top... even when the tree does not have the strength to hold it up. PVC pipe is inserted inside it's head and tied to the tree's center with electrical ties. It's in the back so it cannot be seen.
This all day tradition is executed by my wife and I with me getting down everything and her deciding where everything goes. I assemble the tree but then she puts everything around. She does this because I don't have the same creative eyes that she does.
She also decides where the family of deer are going to live which is fine but like the inside decorations, the deer get relocated at least six times before she decides their locations are satisfactory.
I wouldn't change a thing about my putting up the Christmas tree experiences.
Saturday Morning
We were going to put up some outside cameras today but it looks like that is going to have to wait.
FOX News reports SOS... (same ole shit)... so, nothing has really changed.
- Trump faces 91 felony charges and is going to trial
- DOJ/FBI continue to protect President Biden
- Hunter Biden charged with tax evasion
- War continues in Ukraine
- War continues in Israels
- Global hatred of JEWS continues
- Prices are coming down a little
- American Families keeping heads above water
- War against fossil fuel continues
- Illegal Immigration continues to increase
Personally, I feel like the LEFT is trying to destroy the economy/culture that made them successful, and the LEFT believes that the RIGHT is also trying to destroy democracy...
- Both cannot be right
- Both cannot be wrong
My wife and I have been retired since 2015 and we do not feel the financial pinch that other Americans say they are experiencing... and this is coming from people who are working... LEADS ME TO BELIEVE - they are living above their means, or they are in an area with an unusually high cost of living.
East TN has a low cost of living... but my wife and I have no debt and do not purchase anything that we don't need. We also don't smoke cigarettes, nor do we drink alcohol which saves us a lot each month.
It would appear, based upon the news, that life in America is not really going to change much, if at all, in the next few days, next few weeks, or next few months.
My concern is not so much about inflation, war on fossil fuels, the 2024 election, or the two wars that are going on... no, my concern is about all the terrorists that have entered the US as a byproduct of our illegal immigration policies and the terrorism that they plan to conduct in the next few months.
I doubt very seriously that terrorists have entered the USA for a holiday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)